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: Three Cents Column by Director Bong

Three Cents Column by Director Bong of RGO 24! 'Although I am lacking and my writing is only worth as much as 'three cents...' I share the Sunday messages and interpret them with 'the language of the world.''

칼럼_연재칼럼_Three Cents Column

Count your blessings

It seems like a woe but it is a blessing.

The Bible said that everything you do for the Lord’s work is the Will of the Heavens, so you must know this and live with thanksgiving and with love in every circumstance. However, in reality, this might not be that easy to do. When we encounter agonizing and difficult situations at a certain moment, how could we express true thanksgiving and love before the heavens? For the answer, I would like to bring up one familiar folktale, that serves as a good lesson for people who take action recklessly, because they cannot even foresee one step [into the future] and [often] become emotional.

Once upon a time, there was an old man living in an area near the border of China. One day, a horse that the old man was raising had run away to a land of barbarians across the border. One single horse was a great asset to the old man since he was not rich, so he was shocked by what happened. The neighbors were consoling the old man but he was calm saying, “Who knows if this could turn into a blessing.” After a few days, the horse that ran away came back home with a female horse. The neighbors congratulated [him] saying, “Really the woe changed to a blessing.”

However, at that, he said, “Who knows? It could turn into a woe this time.” and did not rejoice for gaining one more horse. A few days later, just as he expected, the old man’s son fell from the horse while riding it, broke his leg, and was severely injured. The neighbors came to the old man and consoled him again, but he was serene, saying, “This could become a blessing again.” After a while, barbarians from the North invaded and there was an order from the nation conscripting all young men. When all the young men were dragged into the battlefield of death, the old man’s son was not conscripted due to his broken leg.

Among English idioms, there is the saying, “A blessing in disguise.” It means that ‘something seems like misfortune but actually it is happiness,’ ‘it seems like a bad situation but actually it is a blessing.’ This is a line that James Hervey (1714 - 1758)--an English clergyman and writer--had coined.

Give thanks in all circumstances.

This week’s message revealed the secret of the history of the Heavens: God of the Holy Trinity works upon us in two main ways, and one of them is blocking and frustrating the current things that we are doing. He blocks and frustrates us to give even better things to us. Therefore, we should be able to give thanks in all circumstances.

Except for unusual happenings where woes and blessings switch like the previous tale, even when we compare hand-in-hand what God has blessed us with and what we have suffered, we all will acknowledge that God’s grace is incomparably greater no matter what. The problem is that we focus on and worry more about things that do not go well. That’s why we can not give thanks.

My personal favorite hymn was written in 1897, called ‘Count your blessings.’

“Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Just as what was mentioned in the message, if we first remember that He saved our spirit and body from certain death and count the blessings that we have received, really we cannot help but go before the Heavens with pure thanksgiving and with love.

We should always remember that He is God who guides us reasonably by giving inspiration and makes things better by blocking in various ways what is not the Will according to time. In addition, we should first get out of the ignorance of misunderstanding and resenting God, believe Him in all situations, and set the condition of love. Understanding the Heavens, paying attention to His Will and works, and loving Him without changing…This may very well be the basic attitude that we should equip ourselves with as mature counterparts of love.